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Lost Civilizations
Egypt: Lost Civilizations
From Roman villas to Hollywood films, ancient Egypt has been a source of fascination and inspiration in many other cultures. But why, exactly, has this been the case? In this book, Christina Riggs examines the history, art, and religion of ancient Egypt to illuminate why it has been so influential throughout the centuries. In doing so, she shows how the ancient past has always been used to serve contemporary purposes.
Often characterized as a lost civilization that was discovered by adventurers and archeologists, Egypt has meant many things to many different people. Ancient Greek and Roman writers admired ancient Egyptian philosophy, and this admiration would influence ideas about Egypt in Renaissance Europe as well as the Arabic-speaking world. By the eighteenth century, secret societies like the Freemasons looked to ancient Egypt as a source of wisdom, but as modern Egypt became the focus of Western military strategy and economic exploitation in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, its ancient remains came to be seen as exotic, primitive, or even dangerous, tangled in the politics of racial science and archaeology. The curse of the pharaohs or the seductiveness of Cleopatra were myths that took on new meanings in the colonial era, while ancient Egypt also inspired modernist, anti-colonial movements in the arts, such as in the Harlem Renaissance and Egyptian Pharaonism. Today, ancient Egypt—whether through actual relics or through cultural homage—can be found from museum galleries to tattoo parlors. Riggs helps us understand why this “lost civilization” continues to be a touchpoint for defining—and debating—who we are today.
Often characterized as a lost civilization that was discovered by adventurers and archeologists, Egypt has meant many things to many different people. Ancient Greek and Roman writers admired ancient Egyptian philosophy, and this admiration would influence ideas about Egypt in Renaissance Europe as well as the Arabic-speaking world. By the eighteenth century, secret societies like the Freemasons looked to ancient Egypt as a source of wisdom, but as modern Egypt became the focus of Western military strategy and economic exploitation in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, its ancient remains came to be seen as exotic, primitive, or even dangerous, tangled in the politics of racial science and archaeology. The curse of the pharaohs or the seductiveness of Cleopatra were myths that took on new meanings in the colonial era, while ancient Egypt also inspired modernist, anti-colonial movements in the arts, such as in the Harlem Renaissance and Egyptian Pharaonism. Today, ancient Egypt—whether through actual relics or through cultural homage—can be found from museum galleries to tattoo parlors. Riggs helps us understand why this “lost civilization” continues to be a touchpoint for defining—and debating—who we are today.
- GenresHistoryEgyptNonfiction
208 pages, Hardcover
Published July 15, 2017
1 person is currently reading
98 people want to read
About the author
Christina Riggs
11 books54 followersChristina Riggs is Professor of the History of Visual Culture at Durham University in the northeast of England. Her most recent book is Treasured: How Tutankhamun Shaped a Century (2021), an 'utterly original' account which Kirkus Reviews has described as 'an imaginative weaving of the personal and political into a fresh narrative of an archaeological icon.'
Riggs is a former museum curator who studied art history, archaeology, and Egyptology in her native United States before moving to the UK to complete her doctorate at Oxford University. She has held a number of prestigious fellowships, and her writing has appeared in Apollo, History Today, the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books, and Italia magazine, the last reflecting her love of all things Italian. She lives between the north of England and the north of Italy – and wherever she is, she writes first thing in the morning, with a strong cup of coffee.
Riggs is a former museum curator who studied art history, archaeology, and Egyptology in her native United States before moving to the UK to complete her doctorate at Oxford University. She has held a number of prestigious fellowships, and her writing has appeared in Apollo, History Today, the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books, and Italia magazine, the last reflecting her love of all things Italian. She lives between the north of England and the north of Italy – and wherever she is, she writes first thing in the morning, with a strong cup of coffee.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 12, 2022
因為印度個一本lost civilization 系列而有動力去繼續看同系列的書
而本身是考古迷
對這的系列的題目都好有興趣
但我對這本感到有點兒失望
原本是想再認真認識埃及文明一些不為人知的小知識
但最後原來這本書比較是在説埃及考古史
以及埃及考古史和西方世界的關
並不是在説埃及史
唯一得到的考古小知識
就是原來埃及文字並不是只有我們平常在博物館見到的那款
還有其他日常使用的簡化版本
而本身是考古迷
對這的系列的題目都好有興趣
但我對這本感到有點兒失望
原本是想再認真認識埃及文明一些不為人知的小知識
但最後原來這本書比較是在説埃及考古史
以及埃及考古史和西方世界的關
並不是在説埃及史
唯一得到的考古小知識
就是原來埃及文字並不是只有我們平常在博物館見到的那款
還有其他日常使用的簡化版本
April 13, 2019
Review of Egypt: Lost Civilizations, by Christina Riggs
by Stan Prager (4-13-19)
Apparently, Sigmund Freud spent the final year of his long and productive life as a refugee from the Nazi menace, in a house in London that is now a museum to his legacy. On the great exile’s preserved desk still sits a good number of statuettes from ancient cultures that he collected, including on one corner a carved stone baboon—known as the “Baboon of Thoth”—symbolic of that ancient Egyptian deity identified with both writing and wisdom. “Freud’s housekeeper recalled that he often stroked the smooth head of the stone baboon, like a favourite pet.” [p13] This anecdote serves as an introduction to Egypt, by Christina Riggs, a 2017 addition to the wonderful Lost Civilizations series that also features volumes devoted to the Etruscans, the Persians, and the Goths.
I was so taken by one of these—The Indus, by Andrew Robinson—that I put the others on a birthday list later fulfilled by my wonderful wife, so I now own the remainder of the set, each one destined to sit in queue in my ever-lengthening TBR until its time arrives. Egypt came up first. But it turns out that Riggs’ book stands apart from the others because it is not at all a history of Egyptian civilization, but rather a studied essay on the numerous ways that ancient Egypt came to be understood by subsequent cultures, its historical record manipulated and frequently distorted to support forced interpretations that suited its various interpreters. The toolkit deployed to construct sometimes elaborate visions that reflected far more kindly upon the later civilizations that succeeded it rather than accurately representing the ancient one that inspired these included its monumental architecture, its tomb painting, its mummified dead, its hieroglyphs, even abstract and unfounded notions of race and superiority—as well as, of course, objets d'art like the “Baboon of Thoth.”
Riggs, whose background is in art and archaeology, writes well and presents a series of articulate arguments to support her examination of all the ways Egypt has echoed down through the ages. It is often overlooked that to the first century Roman tourists who scribbled graffiti on tombs in the Nile valley, the pyramids of Giza were more ancient by half a millennium than those long-dead Romans are to us today! So, it is a very long echo indeed. Alas, for all of Rigg’s talent, I myself made a poor audience for her narrative. I opened the cover yearning to learn more about Egypt, not more about how we recall it. I might not have made the mistake had I noticed at the outset how her title—which is absent the definitive article—differed from the others in the series. There is The Indus, The Barbarians, The Etruscans. Riggs’ edition is simply Egypt. That should have been a clue! But that is, as we say on the street, “my bad,” not the author’s. Despite this, I did find enough to hold my interest, to finish the book, and to recommend it—but only to those with a far greater interest in art history and interpretation than I possess.
Review of Egypt: Lost Civilizations, by Christina Riggs https://regarp.com/2019/04/13/review-...
by Stan Prager (4-13-19)
Apparently, Sigmund Freud spent the final year of his long and productive life as a refugee from the Nazi menace, in a house in London that is now a museum to his legacy. On the great exile’s preserved desk still sits a good number of statuettes from ancient cultures that he collected, including on one corner a carved stone baboon—known as the “Baboon of Thoth”—symbolic of that ancient Egyptian deity identified with both writing and wisdom. “Freud’s housekeeper recalled that he often stroked the smooth head of the stone baboon, like a favourite pet.” [p13] This anecdote serves as an introduction to Egypt, by Christina Riggs, a 2017 addition to the wonderful Lost Civilizations series that also features volumes devoted to the Etruscans, the Persians, and the Goths.
I was so taken by one of these—The Indus, by Andrew Robinson—that I put the others on a birthday list later fulfilled by my wonderful wife, so I now own the remainder of the set, each one destined to sit in queue in my ever-lengthening TBR until its time arrives. Egypt came up first. But it turns out that Riggs’ book stands apart from the others because it is not at all a history of Egyptian civilization, but rather a studied essay on the numerous ways that ancient Egypt came to be understood by subsequent cultures, its historical record manipulated and frequently distorted to support forced interpretations that suited its various interpreters. The toolkit deployed to construct sometimes elaborate visions that reflected far more kindly upon the later civilizations that succeeded it rather than accurately representing the ancient one that inspired these included its monumental architecture, its tomb painting, its mummified dead, its hieroglyphs, even abstract and unfounded notions of race and superiority—as well as, of course, objets d'art like the “Baboon of Thoth.”
Riggs, whose background is in art and archaeology, writes well and presents a series of articulate arguments to support her examination of all the ways Egypt has echoed down through the ages. It is often overlooked that to the first century Roman tourists who scribbled graffiti on tombs in the Nile valley, the pyramids of Giza were more ancient by half a millennium than those long-dead Romans are to us today! So, it is a very long echo indeed. Alas, for all of Rigg’s talent, I myself made a poor audience for her narrative. I opened the cover yearning to learn more about Egypt, not more about how we recall it. I might not have made the mistake had I noticed at the outset how her title—which is absent the definitive article—differed from the others in the series. There is The Indus, The Barbarians, The Etruscans. Riggs’ edition is simply Egypt. That should have been a clue! But that is, as we say on the street, “my bad,” not the author’s. Despite this, I did find enough to hold my interest, to finish the book, and to recommend it—but only to those with a far greater interest in art history and interpretation than I possess.
Review of Egypt: Lost Civilizations, by Christina Riggs https://regarp.com/2019/04/13/review-...
May 8, 2019
I have been wanting to read several books in this series, but when I saw this one one sale, I decided why not. Egypt doesn't seem particularly lost, so I was curious how this book would frame its history. Be warned, this is not an introduction to ancient Egypt per se. Rather, it is an introduction to the historiography of ancient Egypt, i.e. to the way that the history of Egypt has been written. That said, this is a fascinating book. Riggs introduces many of the "greatest hits" of Egyptian history, including hieroglyphs and the Rosetta stone, King Tut and Egyptomania, Cleopatra, and other essential topics. She also explores how Egypt has been "lost" in favor of the fantasies of Egypt that various ages have grafted on to it since the Enlightenment. The chapters on scientific racism are particularly compelling, and I think I might end up incorporating them into my teaching.
As I said, if you just want to learn about Egypt as an "objective" history, you may want to look elsewhere, but if you have any interest in Egypt at all, you will learn a lot from this book. Most importantly, you will learn how subjective this history of Egypt has always been, dating all the way back to the Ptolemies, Macedonian conquerors who commissioned the Egyptian priest Manetho to write a history of his country. As a result, he came up with the system of numbered dynasties that we still use to this day. The division of Egypt into Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms was a much later invention.
The book itself is impressively produced, with thick glossy pages (sometimes shiny in the wrong light!) and full color photographs throughout. It reads a bit like one of those handy Oxford Very Short Introductions, but the inclusion of pictures really helps bring to life the points she makes. In fact, much of this book is focused on artistry and imagery. Each chapter includes sporadic endnotes to offer options for further reading.
As I said, if you just want to learn about Egypt as an "objective" history, you may want to look elsewhere, but if you have any interest in Egypt at all, you will learn a lot from this book. Most importantly, you will learn how subjective this history of Egypt has always been, dating all the way back to the Ptolemies, Macedonian conquerors who commissioned the Egyptian priest Manetho to write a history of his country. As a result, he came up with the system of numbered dynasties that we still use to this day. The division of Egypt into Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms was a much later invention.
The book itself is impressively produced, with thick glossy pages (sometimes shiny in the wrong light!) and full color photographs throughout. It reads a bit like one of those handy Oxford Very Short Introductions, but the inclusion of pictures really helps bring to life the points she makes. In fact, much of this book is focused on artistry and imagery. Each chapter includes sporadic endnotes to offer options for further reading.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews